Chapter 1

Author's Note:

Recommendation:
Eveningray stories follow one another, so it's better for you to read 'Eveningray-who is that foxy' first, in order to understand all connections. Nevertheless, you can enjoy this story even without it.
*****

The setting sun lit tiny crystals of ice in the air over a snow-covered scenery. Magnificent silence ruled the frozen wilderness. Only a solitary owl cleaned his feathers on a branch in a near forest. One of them slowly spiralled down to the ground. Suddenly, a red spot flashed by among the trees. Eveningray was rushing down a forest path, pulling a strange sleigh with a fragile load. The red-maned lady ran out of the forest, galloped across a white plain and approached a deep chasm. But she didn't stop. At full speed, the foxy leapt aloft, got over the gap and landed on the opposite side. As soon as her hooves touched the ground, she shot ahead again. The sleigh hit the ground pretty hard behind her, but thanks to its special construction the load sprang and remained intact. Eve didn't even look back, carried on running. There was nothing more important to her than to deliver her precious load in time.

Our story begins twelve hours earlier in the palace of the Kingdom of the Midnight Sun.

Queen Polar Sky summoned Blizzard and Eveningray to tell them, "Ponies who walked through Valley of Shadows say that they heard peculiar sounds coming out of a local fortress. Go and check it, please."

"The ancient fortress in Valley of Shadows is too important. You have to come with us, Queen Polar Sky. Your power might be needed there," Blizzard replied.

While Blizzard was packing her necessaries the young yellow-maned alicorn Queen took Eveningray aside. "Eve, If something bad happens today, I want you to know that I have always loved you like my own sister."

"What are you trying to tell me, Brook?"

"I had a bad dream last night. The earth was glowing red, and trees were burning. Though my talent is the power over fire, I wasn't able to extinguish it. Then I realized that I was watching the tremendous scene from above. Huge talons of death were carrying my powerless body to the other world!"

"Oh, come on, Brook, you shouldn't take the dream too seriously," the foxy was calming her down.

"It was too real for a dream. I think it was rather a foreboding. Take this as a memory of me." The queen gave her a blue mane-ribbon. "I wore it when we met the first time."

"Don't be crazy, Brook. Take it back. I'll let nobody hurt you."

"No, Eve, keep it, please."

The three mares had to hoof to the valley, because pegasi feared to pull the chariot to that area. When the pony ladies got there, they saw a very strange fortress looking like turned inside out. Long-desolate stables, the kitchen, even an armory were situated in front of the stone walls.

"It seems that this place wasn't built to keep enemies outside the walls, but to hold something inside," the queen wondered.

Blizzard wrote some runic letters on the gate and it opened. The mares entered a central tower. There were the mightiest runes chiselled into the floor of a white marble. Twelve obsidian monoliths of a rectangular shape twice as tall as wide were standing in a wide circle around the middle. One of them was cracked.

Blizzard turned to Eveningray and Polar Sky. "In ancient times, dark beings fed on fear terrorized this kingdom. Ponies defeated the monsters, and cast them to the underworld. Here, below our hooves, is a gate through which those freaks try to get back to our world. To prevent that, it was closed, and sealed with this marble broad stone we are standing on. To weight it down, our ancestors built the tower on it, and later the whole fortress around. These obsidian stones called black mirrors reflect negative energy. None of those creatures from down there could survive just a few moments among them. Its own negative energy dispersed into different directions would tear it in pieces. It is necessary that the broken obsidian be replaced. Fortunately, there is another one black mirror. We have to get it in here before sunset. I guess the seal won't last much longer. Eveningray, go to Maple. She will tell you where you can find it. I and the Queen will be guarding this place against the forces of the underworld."

An hour later, Eveningray came to Maple's log cabin.

"The stone you are talking about is in Green Peak, my birthplace," the piebald mare said.

"Will you come with me, then?" The foxy proposed.

"No, I couldn't keep pace with you. Take a seat, and have a piece of my apple pie. It will take a while to find the map you need to get there."

"Do you want me to help you?"

"No. Save your energy. You're gonna need it," Maple said.

Eveningray ate the pie, drank a tea, and while Maple was searching for the map, she asked her, "Maple, why don't you grow trees? Your name and cutie mark say it is your talent."

"Well, my little wild mare, talent is not all you need. I have grown just four trees in my life. I always wanted to see what's beyond the horizon, and couldn't give up on my traveling dreams just because of the small picture on my flank. At first, sailing and navigation were so hard for me to learn, but thanks to my diligence and persistence I made it." Maple gave Eveningray the map.

"Thanks. See you," the foxy said and hit the road.

A few minutes later, the piebald earth mare found a medallion hung on a chair back. She galloped to catch up with her, but the red-maned unicorn was already away.

"Without this medallion she can't prove she is the queen's envoy. Why must this mare be so rash?" Maple sighed.

After a long journey, Eveningray came to a settlement where a giant bird was held captive. Eve asked the first pony she met why.

"This is Thunderbird. It brings death, doom and misfortune!" A yellow-maned mare having a picture of mushrooms for her cutie mark said, "some say that it's able to gulp a whole pony at once! This dangerous thing was flying around, and terrifying us for many years. Until yesterday that we put a sleeping potion into its favourite pool of drinking water, and heroically overpowered the monster. It was necessary. Last week we almost lost our dear friend!"

"Did the bird hurt him?"

"Well, our fellow was picking up timber in a forest. Suddenly, a giant shadow flew over him. The pony was so shocked that he almost had a heart attack!" The blond mare explained.

"So, you hold him in chains just because he is big and you are superstitious?!" Eve's horn shone. She used her magic to open the shackles and set the bird free.

Enraged Thunderbird immediately walked off towards his captors to avenge on them. Eveningray jumped in front of him, and lit her horn up again to show him clearly that she wouldn't allow it.

"Go home!" She said.

Thunderbird spread his huge wings that shadowed the sun. Ponies behind Eve cowered. The bird stooped to her, opened his tremendous beak and screamed with the voice so strong that her mane and tail waved, and the snow fell off all the roofs in the settlement. Then he flapped his wings which raised a trees-bending wind. The winged giant took off and flew away.

"That red-maned unicorn witch controls the monster!" One mare in a herd of ponies exclaimed.

"It was her who sent it to us!" A stallion shouted.

Before Eveningray managed to turn around, she had felt a dull punch on her head and had fallen senseless.

A few minutes later, the foxy woke up lying on the ground, chained, with a pouch tied up to her horn, in the place that Thunderbird had been held before.

"The amulet on your horn disables it, so don't try to call your monster in or other tricks!" A shaggy mare said, "We've also burnt that parchment with magic signs, so that you can't cast a spell on us."

'A parchment with magic signs? Oh, no, the map! Maple will bite my head off!' Eve thought.

She closed the eyes and focused. A small cloud of her cold breath appeared at her muzzle. Eve's mane and tail turned light blue. Hoarfrost covered her hooves and the shackles. Eveningray broke the frozen chains, stood up, and took the pouch off.

"Run! The witch is free!!" The shaggy mare shouted.

"Wait, I won't hurt you. Which way is to Green Peak?" The foxy called out to them, but there was already no one there.

Eveningray drew a circle of runes on the ground, and put a few small shards of the broken mirror in it.

'Hopefully, the 13th black mirror is not too far, or this spell won't be working,' she thought to herself. The runes changed their shape to an arrow pointing in the direction where the last black stone was.

Two hours later, Eve got to Green Peak. She entered the town hall amd spoke with a local ponies' council.

"We can't give you the stone," the mayor, a mature prim earth mare said.

"This is the order of your Queen! My royal bracelet proves it," said Eve who realized that she had left the medallion at Maple's.

The Mayor didn't believe her, "I bought a similar one for my daughter in Fakeville last year."

"We need the black stone; it keeps a giant bird off our village. They say that it is able to swallow a whole pony at once!" A Mayor's secretary added.

"You fear Thunderbird who doesn't even care about you. But if I don't bring the black mirror to Valley of Shadows in time, literally thousands of real monsters will swarm the whole kingdom!" Angry Eveningray said.

"I think you're just a thief trying to fool us!" The mayor rejoined.

Eveningray put a hoof on her forehead. "Oh, good gracious, now I know why Maple has never spoken about her birthplace!"

A carpenter earth stallion who had brought a new table to the town hall asked her, "Why didn't Maple come to see her grove?"

"She told me that she had grown just four trees in her life."

"That's right. She asked me to cut them down and make a boat for her." The carpenter told the council, "Give her the black stone, Maple must have had a good reason to send her here."

"This decision is not up to you!" The mayor spoke harshly to him.

The secretary whispered in the mayor's ear, "but if it's all true, we would be responsible for possible consequences!"

"Well, we can't let our queen down when she needs us. You may take the black stone," the mayor said willingly.

The carpenter turned to Eve. "It will take a while."

"I have no time to wait!"

"Patience. First, I have to make a sleigh for you to carry the stone with." He wrote something on a small paper. "Take this to our blacksmith."

The blacksmith unicorn read it, rubbed his beard and asked her, "May I see your hooves?"

Eveningray complied him.

Then he took another small paper, wrote a message on it and told her, "well, I'll bring it to you when it's done. Now deliver this to that small house on the left."

In the small house, three curly ponies read it and measured her body.

One of them said, "I'll bring it to you when it's ready. Now you can have a carrot snack at the shop in the square, just give them this message."

In the afternoon, ponies loaded the black mirror on the new sleigh.

"You can go as fast as you want; the stone is safe on this," the carpenter assured the foxy.

The three curly ponies put a new harness on her.

The blacksmith arrived at a gallop and gave her horseshoes with spikes underneath. "Put these on and you won't slip on ice."

The carpenter told Eve, "tell Maple that she inspired many ponies to follow their dreams in spite of their cutie marks. A daughter of the blacksmith is a treasure hunter, though her cutie predestined her to become a florist. The three brothers are very talented musicians and yet the best saddlers of our region. And the delicious carrot snacks are made by Fiery Tulip who was set to be a gardener, but she studied hard an elite school of culinary arts." He gave her a sapphire crystal. "This magic compass was my birthday present for Maple when we were colts, but she had left Green Peak before I could give it to her. I don't even know how it works."

"I do," Eve smiled. She laid it down on the ground, tapped it with her hoof three times, closed her eyes and imagined Valley of Shadows. The crystal turned around and pointed its tip at a place in the distance. Eveningray said thank you and set out.

On her way, she was watched by a bunch of moufflon bandits from a high rock.

"This pretty looks like she has a valuable freight and she's alone. So, guys, let's go for it!" Their boss said.

The red-maned lady ran down a wide forest road. Suddenly, two bandits lassoed the sleigh from behind hoping it would stop her. But Eve dragged them through the snow. Soon their eyes, noses and ears were full of it. One of them couldn't hold the rope any longer and let it go. The free rope was whipping the other moufflon. He was holding tight though. Until the next turn that centrifugal force cast him against a tree. A few seconds later, both ropes fell off.

The unicorn lady spotted other two bandits hid behind trees in front of her. 'Oh really?' She thought.

They jumped out of their hiding place with a net in their mouths and ran to Eve. The spiked horseshoes enabled her to take a sharp turn on a large frozen puddle. The bandits didn't notice the ice, slipped on it, missed Eve, and ended up in a big heap of snow. The rest of the moufflons were standing behind a barricade of logs and branches on the road.

"This should stop her," one of them grinned.

"So, why ain't she slowin' down?" Another one asked.

Eveningray galloping to them lit her horn up.

"SCRAM!!" The boss shouted.

All the bandits dashed aside. The foxy made a ball of fire, sent it against the barricade and blew it up.

The moufflons lying in shrubs saw her moving away.

"So, you call yourselves bandits?!" The boss scolded them.

"Sorry, she was simply unstoppable," a grey moufflon shrugged.

Eve ran across the white plain, jumped over the chasm, and soon approached a large lake. The mare headed straight towards the water. Her horn shone. Rushing at full speed she was creating a road of ice on the surface ahead. There was no space for a mistake or hesitation, because the ice was breaking right behind the sleigh. After getting to the opposite shore, Eve climbed up one of hills bordering Valley of Shadows. On the top, the foxy mounted the sleigh and slid downhill fast.

"Hey, this is not bad," Eve laughed.

When she came into the tower, a rumbling sound was echoing all around due to an onslaught of the demon forces trying to break through the seal which Blizzard and the Queen were fortifying it with their magic.

"I am so glad to see you, Eveningray," Blizzard said.
. The foxy took the harness off.
. Blizzard removed the broken obsidian, and Eve replaced it with the new black mirror that perfectly fit in its place.

"Hopefully, it's not too late." The red-maned mare said.

All the noise ceased. The last ray of the sun coming through the only small window touched the floor and disappeared.

Blizzard lit several torches on the wall, pricked her ears up, took a look around and smiled at Eve, "well, it seems you have done it."

"You have no idea what I had to..."

A bang sounded. All the mirrors one by one shattered into thousands of shards. The seal cracked. A long slimy tentacle got through a small fissure, and wrapped around Blizzard's neck. It was pulling her down to the floor. Eveningray froze it and snapped it off. Other three tentacles appeared. They were trying to enlarge the opening.

"This is all good for nothing!" The Queen said, spread her wings and flew away.

"Brook, you can't leave us now! We need you here!" The foxy called out to her.

One tentacle was trying to stick its suckers to Eve's head. She shot a freezing beam at it. But another one wrapped around her body and dragged her down. Eveningray punched it hard with her front hoof shod with the spiked horseshoe. Blizzard hesitated to use her power, so as not to hurt Eve. The third tentacle was about to attack the red-maned mare. Blizzard caught it with her telekinesis, and pulled it away from her. After several punches more, the thing squeezing Eve loosened its grasp and she extricated herself.

"Move!" Blizzard shouted.

Eveningray jumped aside. Blizzard struck the tentacles with a lightning, which made them back down for a minute, but it also made the gap wider. Eveningray asked Blizzard to get out of the tower, and from the door, she created a thick layer of ice on the floor. After a while, even the ice began to break.

The Queen came back with the moldavite ring on her horn. "Blizzard, Eve, leave the valley, now!"

"Brook, the garnet part is broken. All the strength in you will be drained if you use the ring without it!" Eveningray objected.

"Obey your Queen, Eve. Don't make me waste my power to drive you away from here," Brook said.

The Queen waited until Blizzard and Eveningray galloped over the hills. Then she spread her wings and flew up high above the fortress. The moldavite ring multiplied the power of her horn. Its shine lit the night landscape. The alicorn lady raised the underground eternal flame. The earth quaked, and rifted in the four cardinal points. Four lava and smoke spouting volcanoes rose out of the ground. In a while the hot lava flooded the whole valley, and definitively buried the fortress.

The light of the Queen's horn went out. Wings of exhausted Polar Sky couldn't keep her in the air any longer. Blizzard and Eveningray saw her plummeting down towards the red glowing lake. The mares tried to catch her with their magic, but they were too far from her. Polar Sky disappeared behind the horizon.

The unicorn ladies were standing there in silence. Neither of them could believe what they had seen was true.

Suddenly, a giant shadow emerged from behind the volcanic columns of smoke.

"One of those freaks from the underworld has escaped!" Blizzard said.

Absent-minded Eve holding Brook's mane-ribbon whispered, "I'll let nobody hurt you." A tear ran down her cheek.

Blizzard shouted at her, "Eveningray, pull yourself together! We have to stop the monster! I will thrust it down from the sky with a lightning; and you freeze it!"

The dark thing flew directly against them.

Blizzard aimed her shining horn at it.

"No! Wait! I know these wings," Eveningray stopped her.

As the shadow got near, they saw Thunderbird carrying Brook in his talons.

The bird laid her gently down on the ground in front of them, landed and stooped to Eve. "We're now quits! I don't owe you anymore!" He said, took off and headed for home.

Eveningray softly stroked Polar Sky's head. "Are you all right, Brook?"

"Sleep-- Eve, let me sleep," Polar Sky mumbled.

Deep below the buried fortress, in a dark place, a horrific creature told its master, "Lord Sinister, the gate to the outer world is destroyed."

"One battle is lost, but the war is not over yet! The world that once belonged to us will be ours again!"

THE END

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